Atmosphere 2024/25

[Jazzyblue]

I completely agree with your last two points. Pricing in particular is now a huge issue as it means large numbers of local fans and long standing fans are being completely priced out of attending city matches.

There’s no long term thinking at all, as the next generation aren’t being considered. The average age of the crowd for league games has to be 60+ and above?
This is having a direct impact on the atmosphere in my opinion.

Champions league games now feel like the community shield game fans boycotted and it’s obvious large numbers of city fans are boycotting/ unable to attend these games.

We’ve got no one standing up for the fans.

There is no way a club at our level, with the players we have on the pitch, should not be selling out a game against top tier opposition unless someone in the boardroom is getting something wrong. Can't pay, won't pay might end up being the most powerful protest of all.

 

[Big Joe Corrigan]

I was bored for most of last night. Watching fans from abroad getting giddy over a dull game like that is a bit surreal and I can’t say I am that excited about the remaining 3 matches at home. I’m not even planning on watching the away games live, just the BBC highlights. Or I might not bother at all until the knockout stages.

I don’t care if we are playing Real Madrid or Fleetwood, if City are playing I want to watch, the opponent is irrelevant to me.

 

[Axel Freed]

Maybe Sheikh Mansour will be influenced by Turki Al Sheikh’s plans to make boxing available to a wider audience by reducing the PPV prices for big fights and will become a trailblazer in making footy more affordable again.

But then again maybe he won’t

 

[M23 Citizen]

It really irritates me when millionaires give their input on things like this as well.

Yesterday, I got up at 4:55 to get to work for 5:30 so that I could finish early to get to the match.

My lad works at our place and started an hour early to finish at 3. We then drove to the other lad's college and picked him up with a change of clothing in the back of the car and set off from Hull to Manchester. We stopped quickly on the Broadway for a chip barm, had a quick pint and chat with an old schoolmate in the Cornershop and headed to the ground. We were in block 110 and the atmosphere, whilst not the best I've experienced, certainly wasn't the worst. There was as much to-ing and fro-ing with the Inter fans that the language barrier would allow. The South Stand was the best it's been so far this season and if Peter Schmeichel can't feel that from whichever exclusive part of the stadium he watched from, then fuck him.

We then walked back to the car, drove back to Hull and got in at 00:30. I was wired from driving so had a brew, watched a bit of MOTD and hit the sack about twenty past one. Back up at 7 this morning for work and although tired, I wouldn't change a thing apart from a Gundog header to be a bit lower.

You did well getting home. I got in at that time and I only live in Wythenshawe.

 

[Big Joe Corrigan]

Champions league games now feel like the community shield game fans boycotted and it’s obvious large numbers of city fans are boycotting/ unable to attend these games.

Im sure these fans boycotting the early CL games will return for the latter stages.

 

[Cellarite]

You did well getting home. I got in at that time and I only live in Wythenshawe.

Does your missus read this and you’re hiding what you actually did for a couple of hours after the match?

 

[mcfcstu]

If only they put numbers on rows and seats that could be matched against tickets.
Or put eyes and brains into these numb-nuts.
Hardly any regulars in my block last night.

If only half the tourists could actually understand the alphabet. Had group of 4 tourists trying to move people from seats in row W in our block and the steward had to point out to them their row was actually row M. And then the selfie brigade standing in the aisles when your trying to watch the games. Feels like we've sold our soul as a club now to tourists and half and half scarves.

 

[M18CTID]

I was bored for most of last night. Watching fans from abroad getting giddy over a dull game like that is a bit surreal and I can’t say I am that excited about the remaining 3 matches at home. I’m not even planning on watching the away games live, just the BBC highlights. Or I might not bother at all until the knockout stages.

Bit of a different perspective for me. I flew out to Portugal last night so missed the game, otherwise I’d have been there. I fully get the bits about the pricing, cheese, lack of atmosphere in certain parts of the ground, etc, but when I finally got to my hotel after midnight I caught the full re-run of the match from about 35 minutes in. For me, it was a very good game tactically and technically. Some of our build-up play was fantastic with only the finishing letting us down. Inter, for their part, were very well organised and also offered a threat going forward.

 

[Citizen of Legoland]

Bit of a different perspective for me. I flew out to Portugal last night so missed the game, otherwise I’d have been there. I fully get the bits about the pricing, cheese, lack of atmosphere in certain parts of the ground, etc, but when I finally got to my hotel after midnight I caught the full re-run of the match from about 35 minutes in. For me, it was a very good game tactically and technically. Some of our build-up play was fantastic with only the finishing letting us down. Inter, for their part, were very well organised and also offered a threat going forward.

Yes we were decent tbh just couldn’t get the ball on target enough, it was more the atmosphere and matchday experience rather than the game itself that I found a bit off, largely due to the new format and poor pricing leading to even fewer regulars than normal. It’ll get better as the tournament progresses I expect.

 

[youngbob]

I didn't know where to post this really, so in here it will go! I've been thinking about last night's game a lot since the full time whistle and I can't shake this uneasy feeling I have. The whole night just felt really off about it, and I think it's because it's the most egregious example we've seen so far of football feeling like something you'd experience stateside. It was pure undiluted capitalism and it felt a little gross if i'm being honest.

Firstly, thousands of fans voted with their feet at the ridiculous ticket prices, obviously motivated by a hungry money hunt from the club. That left City with a crowd of tourists and newer fans - all there to 'experience' City. I don't blame them at all, they tried their best, but it just isn't the same atmosphere. It isn't their fault that football is this way, but we can't deny the effect it has on the night. Then you add to that the absurd nonsense of wearing an away kit at home. The reasoning behind that? Marketing. I wouldn't mind, but it's not even a kit in honour of City's heritage. It's essentially a marketing tool for a band reforming. We willingly sold out our club colours in a game that was a rerun of arguably the biggest night in the club's history to basically push a kit that is more or less a tribute to a band. Money....the kit is fucking shite too, which doesn't help.

Then when you consider the competition itself has changed dramatically, for money, leaving a confusing mess of a format that will feel inconsequential for a long time. A bunch of games, all random, all disconnected and all just a long slog until the inevitable big team qualifications...well yeah, the whole night just felt like a money grab, with a side serving of football. I understand some won't care about this and accuse me of being dramatic, but I don't think it's ever been that overt. Last night it felt like football and City changed in front of our eyes, or at very least we saw the direct result of this aggressive pursuit of money, and worryingly it only feels like the tip of the iceberg. It's not going to get any better.

There will be more kits at higher prices, more game at higher prices and fans will be pushed out. Can't wait for adverts at half-time in the stadium and even more 'innovations' that take the game closer to the dream NFL model of intense profitability at the expense of the consumer. A Champions League game of that magnitude should not feel like a preseason game, but it did. I really can't shake the feeling that last night things changed a lot, and personally i didn't like it at all. It's a crying shame.

I'm more undecided on the new format and willing to give it a chance. I think that the final few group games will be utter chaos as 15-20 teams could all move up and down the league thanks to games that have nothing to do with them, which adds to the randomness and the chaos. And even teams at the top like Liverpool, City, Madrid, Barca, whoever, will have to be disciplined and honest until the last second of the eighth game because one goal could be the difference between finishing 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.

But it's hard not to see the money-grabbing side of it, whether that's a feature or a bug. I was saying in another thread that, while there wasn't much jeopardy in the 21st century group stage system, there's even less jeopardy now than there was before. PSG, for example, have got a ridiculously tough run of fixtures in the groups and will likely finish outside of the top eight positions. Heck, they might even finish outside of the top 16 positions. But hey, not to worry, because a nice little play-off against Celtic or Monaco or PSV will probably await them, which gives them a bonus two-match boost from TV revenues and (all but) secures them passage to the round of 16 anyway. Doesn't matter that they finished 17th in the league stage based on the fixtures they were given - doesn't even matter if they finish 24th - they still get a chance to sneak through.

You're potentially looking at a situation where a team could win two of their eight games and still get through via play-offs if they happen to meet a team just as naff as them - 75% of the competition's entire amount of games will be played to get rid of 33% of the teams. It all feels like UEFA making major concessions to the Super League teams to keep them sweet and financially prosperous. And you'd better believe, as Champions League ticket prices go up and more football fans stop going, that it will eventually be suggested to play these early group games in America where fans are used to travelling 50-100 miles to watch a game and pay $100+ on a ticket. For all the fuss made about Arab owners in our game it's always the Americans who suggest things that threaten the very fabric of why English football is the biggest brand in the sporting world.

But I want to at least see whether the sporting benefits outweigh the capitalist cons. It's admittedly easier for me to sit back and let the situation develop because, due to price rises, I stopped going to Champions League games six years ago. For the match-going fan, these nights are going to feel weird. Another reason I stopped enjoying Champions League games was because all the regulars who sit around me were nowhere to be seen, instead replaced by people who - as you say - were there for a daytrip. Okay, fine, the club gets money out of it, but do those of us who are season ticket holders feel the benefit of the extra cash? I said this when I was on the BM Podcast a couple of weeks ago, that the club are courting demographics me and you just aren't part of. It's gone the same way as video games, where developers and creators now cater entirely to "whales" who pour thousands of £$£$ into their coffers instead of rewarding people who sink hours into the actual game.

As for playing in the fourth kit. Don't even get me fucking started on our "relationship" with that mildly talented smug fucker who comes to about five games a season, four of which are freebies from his pals in London and the other which is almost always the last day of the season when the league's on the line. Akanji has even said he got Bernardo confused with the linesman at one point. The headline that it's the fastest-selling City shirt of all time is complete horseshit - the fastest-selling fourth shirt maybe because we've never had a fourth shirt before, but for no other reason. If they insist on us wearing it in the Champions League, at least keep it to away games. That's the kind of shit Barca, Bayern, Madrid, etc. do and we're just copying them. Playing in away kits at home should have been banned after the Middlesbrough game in 2005.